Month: January 2023

The White House announced Friday new sanctions to be put in place by the U.S. Treasury Department next week on the Wagner Group, designating the Russian private military company as a transnational criminal organization. The Biden administration urged other countries to join the U.S. in targeting the group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, Russian oligarch and confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin, which has been playing a key role in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The administration also released newly declassified photos taken in November of what it says are Russian rail cars delivering infantry rockets and missiles from North Korea for …

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A Uyghur rights group’s legal challenge against the British government for not investigating the import of cotton produced in the Chinese region of Xinjiang was dismissed by a London court Friday. The World Uyghur Congress, an international organization of exiled Uyghur groups, had taken legal action at London’s High Court against Britain’s Home Office, tax authority HMRC and the National Crime Agency. Judge Ian Dove said in a written ruling that he had dismissed the WUC’s case. Rights groups accuse Beijing of widespread abuses of Uyghurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority that numbers around 10 million in the western region …

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The World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos wrapped up Friday after a week that featured feverish discussion of the war in Ukraine, rifts over global trade, and Greta Thunberg crashing the party of the global elite. Here’s a summary of the hottest topics and main events: Tanks Ukraine sent a huge delegation to Davos to lobby hard for new weapons and financial support to help it push Russian forces out of occupied territories, with the German-made Leopard tanks high on the wish list. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who made an appearance on Wednesday, was pressured from all sides to greenlight …

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No Leopard tanks will be given to Ukraine by Germany at this time, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark A. Milley said on Friday, at a briefing at Germany’s U.S. Ramstein Air Base following an international conference on Ukraine support. The international meeting comes amid Kyiv’s frustration with the dissent over sending tanks to Ukraine as the full-scale invasion reaches the 11-month mark. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made direct pleas for tanks at the meeting. Later Friday, in his evening address, Zelenskyy said Ukraine will have to fight to …

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Russia said Friday it had reached “conceptual agreements” with Pakistan on the supply of crude oil and petroleum products, noting the two sides also agreed the payments will be made in “currencies of friendly countries.” Visiting Russian Energy Minister Nikolay Shulginov made the announcement at a news conference in Islamabad following meetings with his Pakistani counterparts at an annual intergovernmental commission on bilateral trade and economic issues. “We have already decided to draft an agreement to sort out all the issues that we have with regard to transportation, insurance, payments and volumes. These issues are in the final stage of …

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Ireland’s foreign minister said Thursday the government was doing all it could to secure the release of a French-Irish citizen held in Iran after his family urged Dublin to intensify talks because of concerns for his health following a hunger strike. Micheal Martin told a news conference in Dublin that “we’re going to do everything we possibly can” to help release Bernard Phelan, a 64-year-old Paris-based travel consultant arrested in October while traveling through Iran in the wake of anti-regime protests. “I think we have been very active in respect of Bernard’s situation,” Martin told reporters. “We’ve sought his release …

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Campaigners from troubled Kashmir, Chad and Venezuela on Thursday won the Martin Ennals Award, one of the world’s most prestigious human rights prizes, with the jury hailing their “courage.” The winners are Khurram Parvez, a prominent rights activist in restive Indian-administered Kashmir; Delphine Djiraibe, one of Chad’s first female lawyers; and Feliciano Reyna, a rights activist and advocate for access to health care for marginalized LGBTQ people in Venezuela. “The common denominator between the 2023 laureates … is their courage, passion and determination to bring the voice of the voiceless to the international arena, despite the ongoing, sometimes life-threatening challenges …

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The European Union will add 37 individual entries to its sanctions against Iran on Monday, two European diplomats told Reuters, as the bloc works on listing Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.  “We will adopt the fourth package of sanctions against Iran on Monday, and we believe we should already start working on the fifth one to list IRGC as a terrorist organization,” said one of the sources, an EU diplomat.  The IRGC was set up shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution to protect the Shiite clerical ruling system and provide a counterweight to the regular armed …

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France was hit by massive walkouts and protests Thursday against a government plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. The plan is shaping up as a test for French President Emmanuel Macron and for the labor unions that oppose it. Thousands of protesters had gathered at Paris’ iconic Place de la Republique by midafternoon, and they just kept coming. “I’m just here because it’s not a fair law that the government wants to do,” a protester named Virginia said. Virginia is in her 50s and works for a cosmetic company. Like most French, polls show, she’s against …

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